The Good of NAFTA #
February 11th, 2008 | In Worth Considering
I don’t know enough about the situation to vouch for Eduardo Porter’s analysis of the free trade deal, but I do think it’s interesting to hear from someone other than knee-jerk protectionists.
Last week, tens of thousands of poor Mexican farmers marched down Mexico City’s fancy Paseo de la Reforma demanding that Nafta be reversed, their cows and donkeys occasionally taking a nibble from the grass along the median strip. Florida’s sugar barons sent their lobbyists to Capitol Hill.
This shared outrage underscores how egalitarian free trade is: undermining inefficient producers who survive behind protective barriers, be they fabulously wealthy sugar producers in Florida or campesinos on tiny plots in Michoacán.